Youtube has recently announced making changes â the collective YouTube experience even betterâ.

The aims of the new ideas from youtube are to ensure users find content that is relevant and appropriate and that inappropriate material is removed quickly.Hereâs some of the key ideas theyâve come up with:

Stricter standard for mature content – videos featuring pornographic images or sex acts are always removed from the site when they’re flagged, youtube are reconsidering and âtighteningâ the standard for what is considered “sexually suggestive.” Videos with sexually suggestive (but not prohibited) content will be age-restricted, which means they’ll be available only to viewers who are 18 or older â however this does rely on age verification being successful.

Demotion of sexually suggestive content and profanity – Videos that are considered sexually suggestive, or containing profanity, will be demoted on the ‘Most Viewed,’ ‘Top Favorite,’ etc functions. The classification of these videos will be based on a number of factors, including video content and descriptions.

More accurate video information â Youtubeâs Community Guidelines have always tried to stop users from attempting to gain view counts for their videos by entering misleading or inappropriate information in video descriptions, tags, titles, and other metadata. Youtube will be enforcing these rules and violations of these guidelines could result in removal of videos and termination of accounts.

You can read more about this hereThese changes do raise some questions well worth considering both at a county and a school levelÂ·Do these new functions mean that we should consider allowing more access to youtube in an educational setting?Â·Is youtube an appropriate resource for young people to be using and if so at what age should be consider allowing access to it?Â·If we do allow access â what key skills should we be encouraging young people to develop in using youtube as safely as possible?